User blog:ErisLordFree/Preparing for the Next Quest
Sometime soon, there'll be another quest line. We don't even have any hints about it--no idea whether it's likely to be a continuation of the Nanjing lines, focused on Du Ping or maybe the Chef of Steel contest, or some new European quest, or maybe the opening of another major city. But I'm caught up on replacing the supplies I wore down during the last quests, and I did some work on my Trapping Achievements and trophy-hunting. I want to be prepared for the next quest, not caught off-guard like the last one (12 red hair! Eeep!), so now that I have a bit of downtime, I'm planning ahead. I have the Dragonscale Backpack, and a Barn#Fabulous Barn, so I have plenty of space to store everything I want. If I didn't have those, I'd make a more pared-down version, but I'd still be preparing. Livestock Harvests I want 2-3 full backpack slots of Chicken Eggs, Milk, and Honey; 1 of Goat's Milk, Duck Eggs, and Pig Gas; 3 of Water (I'm very low on this right now; I've been making dye and paint. So I bought an extra couple of wells now that the land allows them, and I'm trying to get caught up.) People with bigger barn spaces than backpack might switch those to barn spaces, but not need more than 1 slot of each if they have the 500-capacity barns. It might seem like an awful lot to keep around, but I was sure happy that I had almost 600 milk when The Feast of St Patrick Quest Line was released! I could make big stacks of potato pancakes without waiting. Crops I keep a full backpack slot of almost every crop that's usable as an ingredient on its own. I keep a full slot of most of the processed-crop ingredients--sugar, flour, olive oil, and so on. (Not Qu. Haven't had time, but I'm slowly building up a reserve.) I don't bother keeping potatoes, squash, or clover around; if a quest needs them, I can grow them quickly enough. I don't keep olives, and that's a calculated risk--I'm expecting not to have to grow them for a quest, or to be able to spend the time they need to grow doing other things. If I had limited backpack space, I wouldn't bother keeping soybeans as well as all three things that can be made from them, and I wouldn't have chili paste in stock. I might not bother with sunflower oil, which grows and processes quickly; the only issue with it is whether my windmill is doing something else at the moment. Loot I spent some time trapping Salamanders, Sylphs, Sprites, and Spriggans, so I've got at least 5 of each basic elemental loot. I also trapped Redheaded Mermaids so I'd have red hair, and Orchid Pixies to get both pixie dust and star dust. I don't want to neglect spirit monsters, so I made sure to get some umbra, ectoplasm, and hoshi no tama. I had some before, but if I had run out (I regularly run out of umbra because I make 4-hour potions, and one version needs shadow ink), I'd want at least 3 of each, and better to have 5-10. And I spent some time going after unicorns so I'd have a few horseshoes and horsehair, in case those turn out to be needed. Components I've stocked up on Red Dye, because a lot of the Asian quests need it. I've also stocked up on pink dye, wooden poles, and straw--so I can make straw maidens to go after more unicorns if I need them, or make straw hunks if spider webs are important. (I probably won't need to trap for those; I have more than a dozen cocoons on my homestead.) I've built up a nice supply of iron nuggets and ingots, but I don't have many lures--until I bought the expanded backpack, I never kept more than a couple kinds of lures around at once. Now I have space, and I could start making them by the dozens. I probably won't (yet), except to make sure I have a handful of each of rainbow and shellfish lures. Since I bought a spinning wheel, I have easy cloth and threads; I've stocked up on all sorts of those. If I didn't have the wheel, I'd still try to make sure I had half a dozen each of cotton and woolen cloth, and at least 10 twine and 50 thread. (If I didn't have the space, I'd skip the twine, but make sure I had a full slot of thread to convert to it if needed.) I keep a slot of each of several gatherable components--stone, wood, sand, and clay. If backpack space were limited, I might not bother with keeping any of those around; instead, I'd gather them when I needed them. Food I try to make big stacks (more than 20, ideally more than 50) of the highest-energy foods that are useful to me. Right now, that's Dresil, Burmese Duck Egg Curry, and the ubiquitous Strawberries and Cream. I've been considering using Sake as a food; if I decide to do that, I'll grow lots of soybeans so I can fill up a backpack slot with it. For lower level players, or people who have more limited space, Watermelon Juice is always useful, and Strawberries and Cream, although they have a longer prep time because of the cream, are very convenient for quests that involve hopping over long distances. Other I don't stock up on flowers, although some people might. Travel is easy for me, so if I need plants, I head to the wiki to find out where they are and fetch them. However, people who have no buddies near some common non-European plants like mint or jasmine, might grab 5-20 of each of those and set them on their homesteads to keep backpack space open. I've also stocked up on gems, making sure I have cut sapphires, rubies and emeralds, and rough jade. I've considered stocking up on other gems and decided if I need to, I'll mine them. If I'd had my storage space longer, I might have already dedicated a slot in the barn for each type of cut gem. I have no idea what the next quests will involve, but I'm prepared for pretty much anything. By stocking up on food, crops, loot, and components in advance, I can minimize the frustration of spending several hours tracking down the parts for the new trap or bait, and enjoy watching the storyline unfold instead. Category:Blog posts